## Problem
Ubuntu/AppArmor hosts started failing in the default Linux sandbox path
after the switch to vendored/default bubblewrap in `0.115.0`.
The clearest report is in
[#14919](https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/14919), especially [this
investigation
comment](https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/14919#issuecomment-4076504751):
on affected Ubuntu systems, `/usr/bin/bwrap` works, but a copied or
vendored `bwrap` binary fails with errors like `bwrap: setting up uid
map: Permission denied` or `bwrap: loopback: Failed RTM_NEWADDR:
Operation not permitted`.
The root cause is Ubuntu's `/etc/apparmor.d/bwrap-userns-restrict`
profile, which grants `userns` access specifically to `/usr/bin/bwrap`.
Once Codex started using a vendored/internal bubblewrap path, that path
was no longer covered by the distro AppArmor exception, so sandbox
namespace setup could fail even when user namespaces were otherwise
enabled and `uidmap` was installed.
## What this PR changes
- prefer system `/usr/bin/bwrap` whenever it is available
- keep vendored bubblewrap as the fallback when `/usr/bin/bwrap` is
missing
- when `/usr/bin/bwrap` is missing, surface a Codex startup warning
through the app-server/TUI warning path instead of printing directly
from the sandbox helper with `eprintln!`
- use the same launcher decision for both the main sandbox execution
path and the `/proc` preflight path
- document the updated Linux bubblewrap behavior in the Linux sandbox
and core READMEs
## Why this fix
This still fixes the Ubuntu/AppArmor regression from
[#14919](https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/14919), but it keeps the
runtime rule simple and platform-agnostic: if the standard system
bubblewrap is installed, use it; otherwise fall back to the vendored
helper.
The warning now follows that same simple rule. If Codex cannot find
`/usr/bin/bwrap`, it tells the user that it is falling back to the
vendored helper, and it does so through the existing startup warning
plumbing that reaches the TUI and app-server instead of low-level
sandbox stderr.
## Testing
- `cargo test -p codex-linux-sandbox`
- `cargo test -p codex-app-server --lib`
- `cargo test -p codex-tui-app-server
tests::embedded_app_server_start_failure_is_returned`
- `cargo clippy -p codex-linux-sandbox --all-targets`
- `cargo clippy -p codex-app-server --all-targets`
- `cargo clippy -p codex-tui-app-server --all-targets`
## Summary
- preserve Linux bubblewrap semantics for `write -> none -> write`
filesystem policies by recreating masked mount targets before rebinding
narrower writable descendants
- add a Linux runtime regression for `/repo = write`, `/repo/a = none`,
`/repo/a/b = write` so the nested writable child is exercised under
bubblewrap
- document the supported legacy Landlock fallback and the split-policy
bubblewrap behavior for overlapping carveouts
## Example
Given a split filesystem policy like:
```toml
"/repo" = "write"
"/repo/a" = "none"
"/repo/a/b" = "write"
```
this PR keeps `/repo` writable, masks `/repo/a`, and still reopens
`/repo/a/b` as writable again under bubblewrap.
## Testing
- `just fmt`
- `cargo test -p codex-linux-sandbox`
- `cargo clippy -p codex-linux-sandbox --tests -- -D warnings`
## Stack
fix: fail closed for unsupported split windows sandboxing #14172
-> fix: preserve split filesystem semantics in linux sandbox #14173
fix: align core approvals with split sandbox policies #14171
refactor: centralize filesystem permissions precedence #14174
## Summary
## Summary
- Preserve Linux split filesystem carveouts in bubblewrap by applying
mount masks in the right order, so narrower rules still win under
broader writable roots.
- Preserve unreadable ancestors of writable roots by masking them first
and then rebinding the narrower writable descendants.
- Stop rejecting legacy-plus-split Linux configs that are
sandbox-equivalent after `cwd` resolution by comparing semantics instead
of raw legacy structs.
- Fail closed when callers provide partial split policies, mismatched
legacy-plus-split policies, or force `--use-legacy-landlock` for
split-only shapes that legacy Landlock cannot enforce.
- Add Linux regressions for overlapping writable, read-only, and denied
paths, and document the supported split-policy enforcement path.
## Example
Given a split filesystem policy like:
```toml
[permissions.dev.filesystem]
":root" = "read"
"/code" = "write"
"/code/.git" = "read"
"/code/secrets" = "none"
"/code/secrets/tmp" = "write"
```
this PR makes Linux enforce the intended result under bubblewrap:
- `/code` stays writable
- `/code/.git` stays read-only
- `/code/secrets` stays denied
- `/code/secrets/tmp` can still be reopened as writable if explicitly
allowed
Before this, Linux could lose one of those carveouts depending on mount
order or legacy-policy fallback. This PR keeps the split-policy
semantics intact and rejects configurations that legacy Landlock cannot
represent safely.
## Summary
- make bubblewrap the default Linux sandbox and keep
`use_legacy_landlock` as the only override
- remove `use_linux_sandbox_bwrap` from feature, config, schema, and
docs surfaces
- update Linux sandbox selection, CLI/config plumbing, and related
tests/docs to match the new default
- fold in the follow-up CI fixes for request-permissions responses and
Linux read-only sandbox error text
## Summary
- always pass `--unshare-user` in the Linux bubblewrap argv builders
- stop relying on bubblewrap's auto-userns behavior, which is skipped
for `uid 0`
- update argv expectations in tests and document the explicit user
namespace behavior
The installed Codex binary reproduced the same issue with:
- `codex -c features.use_linux_sandbox_bwrap=true sandbox linux -- true`
- `bwrap: Creating new namespace failed: Operation not permitted`
This happens because Codex asked bubblewrap for mount/pid/network
namespaces without explicitly asking for a user namespace. In a
root-inside-container environment without ambient `CAP_SYS_ADMIN`, that
fails. Adding `--unshare-user` makes bubblewrap create the user
namespace first and then the remaining namespaces succeed.
## Summary
This PR introduces a gated Bubblewrap (bwrap) Linux sandbox path. The
curent Linux sandbox path relies on in-process restrictions (including
Landlock). Bubblewrap gives us a more uniform filesystem isolation
model, especially explicit writable roots with the option to make some
directories read-only and granular network controls.
This is behind a feature flag so we can validate behavior safely before
making it the default.
- Added temporary rollout flag:
- `features.use_linux_sandbox_bwrap`
- Preserved existing default path when the flag is off.
- In Bubblewrap mode:
- Added internal retry without /proc when /proc mount is not permitted
by the host/container.
**Description**
This removes the pre‑Landlock read‑only bind‑mount step from the Linux
sandbox so filesystem restrictions rely solely on Landlock again.
`mounts.rs` is kept in place but left unused. The linux‑sandbox README
is updated to match the new behavior and manual test expectations.
### Motivation
- Landlock alone cannot prevent writes to sensitive in-repo files like
`.git/` when the repo root is writable, so explicit mount restrictions
are required for those paths.
- The sandbox must set up any mounts before calling Landlock so Landlock
can still be applied afterwards and the two mechanisms compose
correctly.
### Description
- Add a new `linux-sandbox` helper `apply_read_only_mounts` in
`linux-sandbox/src/mounts.rs` that: unshares namespaces, maps uids/gids
when required, makes mounts private, bind-mounts targets, and remounts
them read-only.
- Wire the mount step into the sandbox flow by calling
`apply_read_only_mounts(...)` before network/seccomp and before applying
Landlock rules in `linux-sandbox/src/landlock.rs`.
Historically, we spawned the Seatbelt and Landlock sandboxes in
substantially different ways:
For **Seatbelt**, we would run `/usr/bin/sandbox-exec` with our policy
specified as an arg followed by the original command:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/d1de7bb383552e8fadd94be79d65d188e00fd562/codex-rs/core/src/exec.rs#L147-L219
For **Landlock/Seccomp**, we would do
`tokio::runtime::Builder::new_current_thread()`, _invoke
Landlock/Seccomp APIs to modify the permissions of that new thread_, and
then spawn the command:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/d1de7bb383552e8fadd94be79d65d188e00fd562/codex-rs/core/src/exec_linux.rs#L28-L49
While it is neat that Landlock/Seccomp supports applying a policy to
only one thread without having to apply it to the entire process, it
requires us to maintain two different codepaths and is a bit harder to
reason about. The tipping point was
https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/1061, in which we had to start
building up the `env` in an unexpected way for the existing
Landlock/Seccomp approach to continue to work.
This PR overhauls things so that we do similar things for Mac and Linux.
It turned out that we were already building our own "helper binary"
comparable to Mac's `sandbox-exec` as part of the `cli` crate:
https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/d1de7bb383552e8fadd94be79d65d188e00fd562/codex-rs/cli/Cargo.toml#L10-L12
We originally created this to build a small binary to include with the
Node.js version of the Codex CLI to provide support for Linux
sandboxing.
Though the sticky bit is that, at this point, we still want to deploy
the Rust version of Codex as a single, standalone binary rather than a
CLI and a supporting sandboxing binary. To satisfy this goal, we use
"the arg0 trick," in which we:
* use `std::env::current_exe()` to get the path to the CLI that is
currently running
* use the CLI as the `program` for the `Command`
* set `"codex-linux-sandbox"` as arg0 for the `Command`
A CLI that supports sandboxing should check arg0 at the start of the
program. If it is `"codex-linux-sandbox"`, it must invoke
`codex_linux_sandbox::run_main()`, which runs the CLI as if it were
`codex-linux-sandbox`. When acting as `codex-linux-sandbox`, we make the
appropriate Landlock/Seccomp API calls and then use `execvp(3)` to spawn
the original command, so do _replace_ the process rather than spawn a
subprocess. Incidentally, we do this before starting the Tokio runtime,
so the process should only have one thread when `execvp(3)` is called.
Because the `core` crate that needs to spawn the Linux sandboxing is not
a CLI in its own right, this means that every CLI that includes `core`
and relies on this behavior has to (1) implement it and (2) provide the
path to the sandboxing executable. While the path is almost always
`std::env::current_exe()`, we needed to make this configurable for
integration tests, so `Config` now has a `codex_linux_sandbox_exe:
Option<PathBuf>` property to facilitate threading this through,
introduced in https://github.com/openai/codex/pull/1089.
This common pattern is now captured in
`codex_linux_sandbox::run_with_sandbox()` and all of the `main.rs`
functions that should use it have been updated as part of this PR.
The `codex-linux-sandbox` crate added to the Cargo workspace as part of
this PR now has the bulk of the Landlock/Seccomp logic, which makes
`core` a bit simpler. Indeed, `core/src/exec_linux.rs` and
`core/src/landlock.rs` were removed/ported as part of this PR. I also
moved the unit tests for this code into an integration test,
`linux-sandbox/tests/landlock.rs`, in which I use
`env!("CARGO_BIN_EXE_codex-linux-sandbox")` as the value for
`codex_linux_sandbox_exe` since `std::env::current_exe()` is not
appropriate in that case.
viyatb-oai ·
Michael Bolin ·